Research-Methodology

SWOT Analysis

All business students are assigned to conduct SWOT analysis, usually at the earlier stages of their studies. This page focuses on the application of SWOT analysis in a business context as a part of academic assignments . This is a comprehensive SWOT resource and it contains an explanation of SWOT theory, an illustration of how to do a SWOT analysis and links to examples of SWOT analysis of major multinational brands. Moreover, SWOT analysis template further below can be used to generate SWOT tables of top multinational companies along a range of industries.

SWOT Analysis: Theory

SWOT is a strategic analytical tool for assessing strengths and weaknesses of a business, analyzing opportunities available to the business, as well as, threats faced by the business. SWOT analysis can be used at organizational and personal levels.

SWOT-Analysis

As it is illustrated below, strengths and weaknesses are internal, i.e. businesses are able to influence and to manipulate with their strengths and weaknesses. Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are external. It means businesses can only react to opportunities and threats and they do not have any means to influence opportunities and threats.

SWOT analysis has important practical implications. Specifically, with findings of SWOT analysis in their hands, the senior level management identify and built upon their strengths, discover new opportunities and work upon eliminating or minimising threats to the business. Accordingly, SWOT can be a powerful aid for senior level management to develop appropriate strategy for the business.

As a strategic analytical tool, SWOT analysis has some weaknesses as well. Specifically, the application of this tool may encourage users to focus on quantity of factors, instead of focusing on a few, but the most powerful factors having the biggest impact on the business. In other words, SWOT analysis lacks guidance and provision in terms of differences in importance between factors. As a result weak strengths may appear to balance strong weaknesses.

How to do SWOT analysis

The majority of sources explaining SWOT analysis assume that their audience is businesses aiming to improve their operational efficiency. This SWOT analysis resource is different. It explains SWOT analysis assuming that you a business student and you have been assigned to conduct SWOT analysis as a part of your assignment.

How to do SWOT Analysis

You can conduct a SWOT analysis with the following four steps:

Step 1: Selecting a company

If your assignment requires conducting a SWOT analysis, you are either given a case study company by your educational institution or you are free to analyze a company of your own choice. In the first scenario, you have no option but to conduct a SWOT analysis of the company named in your assignment instructions. However, the majority of educational institutions provide students the flexibility to conduct SWOT analysis of a company of their own choice.

Students are often tempted to conduct SWOT analysis of their employer. Choosing your employer as a case study can be a good strategy if you have an access to detailed relevant information. Please note that only descriptive information would not suffice and you will have to justify your arguments by referring to relevant quantitative data. Therefore, if you are not able to find relevant quantitative data about your employer, your best choice could be to conduct SWOT analysis of a multinational enterprise. This is due to the availability of data about the majority multinational enterprises. This portal offers up-to-date sample SWOT analyses of the most famous multinational enterprises as part of company reports .

Step 2: Finding information

If you are conducting a SWOT analysis of a small or medium sized organization such as your employer, family business or a company you are related to in some ways, approaching the company directly may prove to be an efficient strategy to obtain required information. You may try to secure a meeting with a senior level manager and explain practical implications of your SWOT analysis for the business. In other words, you may be able to convince a senior manager that results of your SWOT analysis may provide an important insight into the business and managers can act upon this knowledge to increase the efficiency of the business at various fronts.

Alternatively, if you are conducting SWOT analysis of a multinational enterprise, company annual report is usually the most comprehensive source of the relevant information. Note that annual reports highlight information about strengths of the business within the first few pages and you cannot find information about weaknesses of a company in its annual report for obvious reasons.

Information about Strengths in SWOT Analysis

Information about strengths of the company is easiest to find in your SWOT analysis. Strengths are competitive advantages of the business that made it successful in the first place. In case of small or medium sized organizations, the manager you are interviewing will be happy to discuss the strengths of the business.

In case of multinational companies, on the other hand, the first few pages of annual reports boast about competitive advantages of the business by referring to specific figures and charts. Using some of these charts in your assignment and properly referencing the source is going to increase the quality of your work.

You can determine strengths of businesses in answers to the following questions:

  • What advantages does the company have?
  • What does the company better than its competitors?
  • What unique or low-cost resources are available to the company that are not available to its rivals?
  • What Unique Selling Propositions (UPS) are associated with the company?

The following table illustrates the major strengths possessed by businesses and tips about how to discuss these strengths in your swot analysis:

Information about Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis

It may not be easy to find information about weaknesses of small and medium sized businesses. The manager you are interviewing may not want to discuss weaknesses of their business either intentionally, or they may not be aware of weaknesses. It is important for you to motivate your interviewee to discuss weaknesses of their company by asking relevant questions in a polite way.

It is easier with multinational organizations. An extensive online research can reveal relevant information about weaknesses associated with the company you are analyzing.The majority of big corporations have been involved in some kind of scandals during the past two years and you can discuss the damage of these scandals to the brand image as noteworthy weakness of the company.

For example, suppose you have chosen Coca Cola Company for your SWOT analysis assignment. If you google the term ‘Coca Cola scandal’, search results on the top relate to a scandal where the company funded obesity research that downplayed the negative health implications of Coca Cola products. Negative implications of this incident on Coca Cola brand image is brand’s weakness you can discuss in you SWOT analysis.

All arguments and numbers need to be referenced using referencing style required by your educational institution in an appropriate manner. Preference has to be given to online journals and magazines over online discussion forums and personal blogs.

Answers to the following questions can help to identify weaknesses of your case study company:

  • What aspects of the business could the company improve?
  • What should the company avoid?
  • What factors are causing the company to lose sales?
  • What aspects of products/services are customers are likely to see as weaknesses?

Major weaknesses of businesses and brief tips about discussing them in your assignment are illustrated in the following table:

Information about Opportunities in SWOT Analysis

Information about opportunities available to the business can be derived from its weaknesses in a way that businesses often have an opportunity to turn their weaknesses into strengths. At the same time, it is important that your SWOT analysis also identifies a set of opportunities that are not related to weaknesses. If you can’t think of any company-specific opportunities, you can discuss business opportunities that can be explored by any business in general, such as new product development, international market expansion and increasing the level of effectiveness of social media marketing. Interesting trends in the industry can also be opportunities for the business.

Opportunities can be identified through answering the following questions:

  • What are interesting trends in the market that can be profitably explored by the company?
  • What are the demographic and social changes that present new opportunities in the industry?
  • Are there any government policies and regulations that can help the industry?
  • Are there any opportunities for the company related to technological developments?

The following table illustrates the major opportunities available for businesses and tips about how to discuss these opportunities in your SWOT analysis:

Information about Threats in SWOT Analysis

Threats faced by the business can be classified into two categories. Firstly, there are company-specific threats that stem from company-specific factors such as the threat of losing market share due to ineffective cost structure or the threat of negative media coverage and damage to the brand image due to neglecting the importance of corporate social responsibility. Secondly, there are threats to the industry or to the economy on the whole, such as a threat of introducing tariffs to a certain range of products or the threat of a global economic and financial crisis. You will need to find information about threats belonging to both categories with more emphasis on the threats from the first category, i.e. company-specific threats.

You can identify the main threats to the business through answering the following questions:

  • What are the main obstacles faced by the company?
  • What are the latest developments in competitor Unique Selling Propositions?
  • Does the company have substantial amount of bad debts or cash-flow problems?
  • Was the company involved in any scandal recently?

Main threat facing the majority of businesses and brief tips about discussing them in your SWOT analysis are illustrated in the following table:

Step 3: Writing

You can structure your writing of SWOT analysis in the following way:

Firstly, you will need to discuss the company profile, its strategy and the most recent changes that have taken place in the company prior to presenting your SWOT analysis. The length of such a discussion depends on your assignment instructions and the total word count for your assignment.

Secondly, develop a SWOT Analysis Matrix for your chosen company. You can develop a table containing four sections headed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your chosen company can be presented in bullet points under respective boxes. These should be precise and verifiable statements.

Using steps 1 and 2 above, you should have long list of factors related to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the business. Now it is time to prioritize factors to be included in your SWOT analysis by focusing on the most significant factors. The numbers of factors that should be discussed under each category depends on the total word-count for your assignment.

Thirdly, you have to discuss bullet points in your SWOT table. Your analysis needs to contain statistical data and ideally graphs and tables as well. Do not forget to reference sources, using referencing system  required by your university. Moreover, you can discuss how to address weaknesses and threats identified as a result of your SWOT analysis and get additional marks for your work.

SWOT Analysis Example

This portal contains example SWOT analysis of the following companies:

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SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to organizations. The following table illustrates SWOT analysis:

SWOT Analysis Template

Please choose an industry and a company below to generate a SWOT table containing bullet points of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your chosen company. In order to complete the SWOT analysis you will need to expand the bullet points into a couple of paragraphs with discussions and references from reliable sources to support your arguments.

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Research Proposal for Dissertation SWOT Analysis for Potential sector of Blue Economy Development (BED) in Bangladesh Prepared by: Title : SWOT Analysis for Potential Sector of Blue Economy Development (BED) in Bangladesh

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fraction of our cargo. Considering the average import growth rate of 15.79% (last 10 years) and export growth rate of 15.43% (last 10 years), projected freight value for next ten years would be around USD 435 billion. In order to retain parts of the USD 400 billion in the country, over the ten years, Bangladesh must facilitate local shipping companies to add more ships to the existing fleet, freight operators to establish freight services including container liner services to carry goods to/from Bangladesh using our own as well as chartered ships and freighters.

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This paper attracts interest to the potentialities of a sea-primarily based economy to promote Bangladesh in a center-earnings us via the sustainable use of marine sources about 3-fourths of the earth is covered by the seas. It plays an important function in two critical functions from historical times called the approach of verbal exchange and the source of huge dwelling and non-living herbal resources. At present, international locations have become very a good deal concerned about their marine resources to solve the various gift and destiny-demanding situations in their economies commonly for Bangladesh, the ocean is contributing a large role to its overall socio-monetary progress through rising up the economic sports throughout the United States and especially to the coastal region at southern element. This paper investigates how a lot Bangladesh is capable to take of or manage the demanding situations to become a center of profits via the Sustainable improvement goals (SDGs). Similarly, it has attempted with a more in-depth look to find out the obstacles or limitations of those sports from unique angles if exist. Important words: Blue Energy, Blue Tourism, Submarine Mining, Framework, etc.

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The paper elucidates the major opportunities of economic sectors to the development of blue economy and highlights the constraints in achieving this goal in Bangladesh. The productive economic sectors of blue economy are emphasised and considered in harnessing the full utilization of ocean based resources within the present maritime boundary of Bangladesh. If these oceans based resources are managed by proper planning and inter-sectoral coordination of public-private partnership and investment, it will certainly generate strong foundation for earnings and economic benefits under the approach of blue economy. On the other hand, if marine based economic resources with potential sectors be managed and governed by principles of biodiversity protection, conservation and efforts for care are intertwined with a vision of scientific understanding, and then the blue economy can create some opportunities to resolve the issues of climate changes at the coastal areas. It might also generate job...

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  1. SWOT Analysis Chart

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  3. SWOT Analysis (and TOWS Matrix) EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES

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  4. SWOT Analysis Template

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  1. SWOT ANALYSIS/ SWOC ANALYSIS

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COMMENTS

  1. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review

    Panagiotou, 2003). After the 1960s, the SWOT analysis was used by numerous researchers and scholars of strategic planning. In the 1980s, the SWOT analysis was extensively reintroduced (Hadighi & Mahdavi, 2011; Wernerfelt, 1984). Hoskisson et al. (1999) stated that SWOT had become a dominant framework in the field of strategic management in the ...

  2. PDF A Qualitative Study into the Theoretical and Practical Side of the SWOT

    Purpose- The goal of this research is to create an overview of the differences and similarities of the methods SWOT-analysis and scenario planning, from a theoretical as well as practical perspective, hereby is the focus on the techniques and outcomes.

  3. (PDF) SWOT ANALYSIS: A THEORETICAL REVIEW

    SWOT Analysis is an analysis method used to evaluate the 'strengths', 'weaknesses', 'opportunities' and 'threats' involved in an organization, a plan, a project, a person or a business...

  4. PDF AMAZON, E-COMMERCE, AND THE NEW BRAND WORLD

    history of Amazon as well as three business analyses, a PESTEL analysis, a Porter's Five Forces analysis, and a SWOT analysis, are included to establish a cognizance of Amazon as a company. With this knowledge, several aspects of Amazon's business model are illustrated as potential brand diluting forces. However, an examination of

  5. Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of

    It seems the SWOT-analysis is used more as an "organizer" to stimulate thought and discussion than as a set of rules to optimize rationality in strategic analysis. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION. Is the SWOT-analysis suitable as a tool for strategic analysis in the health care sector? is the central question for this article. To answer this ...

  6. (Pdf) Swot Analysis As a Tool for Strategic Management and An

    ... Despite all drawbacks, conflicts and criticisms, owing to its simplicity, SWOT is one of the essential tools for corporate/business executives to prepare themselves to pick up a more feasible...

  7. PDF 4-Conducting a S.W.O.T. Analysis for Program Improvement

    A SWOT analysis is a high-level and critical thinking exercise for students. The practice can be duplicated in any education setting. Teachers can conduct a SWOT analysis of their particular classes, teacher preparation program, or internship experience. Frequently, educators have a vague idea of their SWOT.

  8. (PDF) Foundations in Management

    Finally, strategic analysis has been conducted by using PESTEL, Porter's five forces, SWOT, and Porter generic strategies tools leading to a recommended strategic planning.; Format: PDF View full-text

  9. Determination of Business Strategies Using SWOT Analysis; Planning and

    A SWOT analysis is the method to evaluate the internal weaknesses and strengths of an organization as well as evaluating the threats and opportu- nities of its external environment. This is considered as an effective frame- work to plan and manage the organizational resources to achieve certain goals in a specific period of time.

  10. PDF Journal of Strategy and Management

    Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the strategic management tool, Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats or SWOT analysis, and to assess how the methodology hasbeenusedaswellaschangestothemethodology.

  11. PDF SWOT Analysis

    17 Threats 19 Preface This eBook describes the SWOT analysis, a technique that you can perform for products, services, and markets when deciding on the best strategy for achieving future growth. You will learn: How SWOT can be used to guide strategy at the highest level or be tied to a spe-cific business objective

  12. PDF An Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis

    What is SWOT? SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats. SWOT analysis is a methodological tool designed to help workers and companies optimize performance, maximize potential, manage competition, and minimize risk. SWOT is about making better decisions, both large and small.

  13. SWOT Analysis

    SWOT Analysis All business students are assigned to conduct SWOT analysis, usually at the earlier stages of their studies. This page focuses on the application of SWOT analysis in a business context as a part of academic assignments.

  14. Dissertations / Theses: 'SWOT analysis'

    The application of the IPA based SWOT analysis was illustrated and evaluated through a case study of Higher Education Institutions in Thailand. The evaluation results showed that SWOT analysis of the case study has a high face validity and its quality is considered acceptable, thereby demonstrating the validity of this study.

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  16. PDF MASTER

    THESIS Master's Programme Strategic Management and Leadership, 60 credits The Influence of Universities on their Region Twenty years of Universities in Krems Philipp Aschinger, Michaela Muthsam Master Thesis, 15 credits Halmstad/Vienna 2014-08-04

  17. (PDF) Research Proposal for Dissertation SWOT Analysis for Potential

    (PDF) Research Proposal for Dissertation SWOT Analysis for Potential sector of Blue Economy Development (BED) in Bangladesh Prepared by: Title : SWOT Analysis for Potential Sector of Blue Economy Development (BED) in Bangladesh | Tahtihal Enam - Academia.edu

  18. PDF Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat Analysis of Solid ...

    2.8 SWOT Analysis 27 2.8.1 The concept of SWOT analysis/ definitions and views 27 2.8.2 SWOT Analysis Framework 29 2.8.3 Internal Analysis 30 2.8.4 External Analysis 31 2.8.5 Techniques for SWOT 31 2.8.6 How to Organize SWOT 32 2.8.7 Advantages of SWOT 33 2.8.8 The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) - Applications 33

  19. PDF SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis ...

    A SWOT analysis looks at both internal and external factors, as well as good (positive) and bad (negative) factors. Internal factors are under your control, such as your product concept, your NPD team, your value chain, and your IP position.

  20. (PDF) SWOT ANALYSIS

    SWOT ANALYSIS CC BY 4.0 Authors: Sharath Kumar C R BGS B.Ed College Praveena K.B Abstract SWOT Analysis is an analysis method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and...

  21. PDF 2019 SWOT Analysis

    1 OVERVIEW In preparation for future planning, Harper College invested significant time and effort to conduct a thorough assessment of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as an external review of opportunities and threats - a SWOT Analysis.

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    SWOT analysis is an effective tool for identifying the environmental conditions and internal capabilities of the organization. The foundation of this efficient tool in strategic management as well as marketing is to understand the perimeter of the organization. [6] If SWOT is well implemented, it can be a great basis for strategy development.

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    Download full-text PDF Read full-text. Download full-text PDF. ... SWOT Analysis . ... conference proceedings, doctoral dissertation, and textbooks from these 10 different countries/regions ...